Here’s all you need to know about selling your music online on your own.

Budding talent demands exposure to be able to thrive and needs a sound audience to transform into a celebrity. However in a world where every other person is a self-proclaimed artist, writer, actor or musician, it might become quite daunting for the actually talented individuals to make their place and receive their due applause.

Specifically talking about the music industry that has now become primarily inclined towards commercialism, young and budding musicians and underground bands might find it hard to catch the interest of a record label to record and promote their work on the music sphere.

However, with the world now accessible at a mere click, the internet has made it convenient for the musicians to record, market and sell their music online and establish their own fandom on the cyber sphere. Here’s how you can sell your music online:

Record a couple of songs (or if you are ambitious enough an entire album!). This will require a lot of jamming and practice on your part, prior to getting it finally recorded.TIP: Home recording studio gear can be had for pretty short money these days, is easy to setup and easy to use. There are endless tutorials, videos and articles online for getting this accomplished. Also recording your music yourself will offer you the greatest creative control but does require some practice. The results will however be quite worth it.

Convert your music in multiple formats. Aside from the CD and DVD format, convert your music into multiple digital formats to make it accessible to maximum audience online. Mp-3 is widely accepted as the universal format (in my opinion) and typically the one I prefer to use but there are many options.TIP: Use a free audio converting tool like FREESTUDIO. It is a reliable and powerful program. I have been using it for years.

Make your music globally available and accessible on popular online stores and application sites. Amazon, Apple, Google, and Band Camp encourage music artists to upload and sell their music directly through their online stores.TIP: Use the “name your price” feature on bandcamp. You can allow the buyer to buy your music for whatever price they feel is appropriate. The minimum price can be set by you. This is a great option for getting people interested in your music by selling it for a price that is hard refuse. You can even offer up your entire catalog of music for a very fair price.

Become a part of some online distribution networks such as TuneCore, Ditto, Awal and Songcast. Such distribution networks are affiliated with digital music stores such as iTune, Spotify, Pandora, and Amazon and can help you make your music globally accessible for purchase.TIP: Use a website such as REVERBNATION.COM to expedite the process of getting your music up for sale on amazon and other “big name” sales websites.

Set Up Your Personal YouTube Channel. YouTube is a great medium for budding musicians to promote their talent on a global platform. Many renowned names such as Carly Rae Jepsen, Esmee Denters, Susan Boyle, Greyson Chance, Karmin, Cody Simpson, Avery and many others found their fandom on the popular video sharing platform and have turned into global celebrities.YouTube does however have a minimum number of subscribers that they require that you have in order for you to be able to use a custom URL. At the time I created my personal YouTube page that number was 100.TIP: FIVERR.COM hosts many internet marketers offering their services which can help you on your journey of promotion. However use these services lightly in order to get your brand out there naturally and gradually. Overdoing it could end up worse than doing anything at all.

Promote your instrumentals, beats and encores on popular digital music production stores such as Soundgine, Firtsdub, and Beat Stars.TIP: Be generous, give away some of your beats for free to help get your name out there. Create a profile on the various websites and always leave a link back to your own website (if you have one).

Make your own CDs and DVDs. Many online sites such as CD Baby and Mix Pixi allow you to record, edit and format your music and make your own CDs online.TIP: I use a great website KUNAKI. They have very reasonable prices and the online tools are pretty intuitive and yield very professional looking results.

Get your own website and social media handles and promote your CDs and DVDs. Website and social media handles will help you promote yourself as a music artist, improve your credibility and highlight your name in the music sphere. Furthermore, it will also help you direct more traffic to your site and encourage people to buy your music.TIP: Use free website creation and hosting tool such as WORDPRESS, which is a great way to create your own website or dedicated blog in which you can post your own content at free will and with a larger degree of creativity. They have great support and their hosting and domain names are completely free.

Aside from your digital marketing and promotion strategy, you must also sell physical copies (CD’S) of your music in person through cafes, entertainment places, art shops, libraries and bookshops. This will enhance your exposure in the real world and will eventually highlight your name in the audience masses.TIP: When first starting out it’s not entirely about making money. If you attend local concerts conventions or other gatherings hand out your cds for free. Sometimes any exposure to your potential audience is worth the price of a few cds and you might even make a few friends with common interests and goals along the way.

Like this:

Wondering where to post (and possibly sell) your music online? Want to get your brand out there?
Here you will find an ever growing list of music submission websites and other places online to create profiles for your band / solo project and / or post your music for others to hear. Some require special contact be made with the site owners while others allow for direct upload.

I have also included websites where you can post your bands images / logos to help build your online presence and some website creation sites to help you generate an image all your own. Every little but helps. I will update this list as I continue to find new sites. If you have any that you feel should be added please mention them in the comments.